The Artist
by falsestart
Summary: A man comes through a weak reality to witness the Evaverse. NOT an S.I.
1. Chapter 1

Ron Barker's: The Artist

(Translated from German)

13/09/1910

Dear Reader:

As I have said to myself and to many others before, I am nothing more than a simple artist living in Vienna. But something of extreme cosmic importance has happened to me. Why "Lilith" would choose me of all the people in the world (or the **worlds** if her words are to be believed) to stop this grand cataclysm from happening… I know not.

I must think that you, whoever you are, would put this letter down in disgust, be confused, or think that I am raving mad by now. If not now, you soon will be; but I must write this down to put my mind at ease no matter how illogical the truth of this matter is.

God! How tired I am! It seems like I have lived through many days and many events in the space of this single one. But I have to write this narrative down before I sleep because I do not trust this account to mere human memory.

I am also afraid of whatever dreams I might see.

As you read please remember that I am not insane, though insanity might have been a more preferable state of mind, or under some hallucinogen, though I wish that I could say that I only was. Please do not shun this as this letter (which I will file away to be opened and read after my death, or when that humanity as a whole can benefit from the knowledge contained within) may be the only true prophecy or vision from God in this day and age…

* * *

This morning, which was an eternity ago for me, was a usual one as far as breakfast in the poor working man's house that I live in. Even though I could faintly smell onions and burnt metal and even though I could just dimly hear the soft sound of warbling chimes- mark the scent and sound, they are significant… I think.

I had dressed and reached for the doorknob thinking of what I could paint for the art lovers of the Vienna streets, I mainly do landscapes. However, when I opened the door, my priorities shifted and my mind emptied of everything except for a deep shock and a blind, coursing terror that flowed through my entire body.

My shock was at first due to a nearly literal flood of orange miasma that rushed into my house along with varied articles of clothing- the likes of which I had never before seen.

Then the scent and sound that I have above mentioned intensified a thousand-fold, making my eyes and nose water with its repugnancy and making my body thrum in a wholly unpleasant fashion. They felt like the olfactory and auditory equivalent of bloated and rotten corpses lying in the street. (I was dimly aware that my apartment had disappeared from around me during this time.)

I was driven to my knees by my overwhelmed senses and the liquid swiftly rose from my chest to over my head- ending the assault upon my ears and nose. At first I had choked on the liquid, trying to keep the air in my lungs; but a quiet feminine voice said "Breathe" and I did. Surprisingly, I did not drown and the liquid felt _right_ to breath, not easy or normal- just _right._

After realizing that I would not drown in the fluid, I surfaced and looked around for the source of the voice.

But first I saw the world around me.

It was a bleak and blasted landscape bathed in reddish light. Hills and mountains near and distant were made of jagged and deeply fissured rock that looked like savage knives and fierce needles. A beach that was close by was made of fine red sand that threw up clouds of scouring dust in the strong wind. No life or clue of life could be seen anywhere- no plants or animals, absolutely no human life either.

The focal point of this desolate vista was a giant, nude, female figure adorned with wings and colored with the purest white cradling a black globe with red grid lines. I did not see her full, entire height, but her knees ended at the horizon line. I fully believe that that she was large enough to use the North Pole as her pillow while her feet rested on the South one.

However, she could not use either Pole as her body was tearing apart into a dozen bloody pieces. The black globe burst and covered her upward-raised belly and breasts with a shower of blood-colored liquid.

Huge, white, human-shaped figures posed as if they were crucified surrounded the disintegrating figure. They were not as big as the figure, but they were as big as the biggest buildings in our modern era. They had originated from high in the atmosphere and had slowly descended, petrifying and ossifying into a black substance that looked like coal.

"Who are you?" the quiet, girl's voice that had told me to breathe suddenly asked.

I gave my name as I turned around to face the speaker, astonished by what I saw.

I had been wrong when I had thought that the area was only lifeless rock. An army of pale, naked, blue-haired girls were floating above the liquid with smiles that were filled with many razor-sharp teeth that promised a messy and brutal death.

I nearly swam away, gibbering with fear for two reasons; they seemed ready to pounce on me and to eat me in some cannibals' communion, and they _all were more identical than twins!_ I would even go far as to claim that they were all copies of the same girl!

The only reason I stayed was because of the copy in front: she was clothed in green and white, her face was neutral of any emotion, and she was holding the other copies of her back with one arm held high and straight away from the front of her body.

"Leave," she commanded, and all the nude versions of her slipped away into some invisible ether. Then she lowered her arm and stared at me with red colored eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked.

She replied cryptically with, "I am me."

"No," I said, "I mean, what is your name?"

"The name of the guise that I inhabit? Or do you mean the given name of my true form?"

"Who are you?" I reiterated.

"I am her," she said, pointing at the distant white figure, whose head was now falling into some distant orange sea, "I am Lilith…"

* * *

Lilith took me by the hand and we floated up out of that orange bay. We _flew_ at an extraordinary height. The world changed under us- the desolate wasteland metamorphing into an impossible metropolis. Tall towers that scraped the sky and unfeasible minarets that tapered to the clouds at dizzying heights into forms that are not able to be built by today's advanced technology. Forests grew at rapid paces, surrounding the conurbation. Horseless carriages of types that I had never seen before screamed along arteries of paved road. I could easily imagine the carriage's occupants merely whistle contently at speeds that would make a modern man shriek with unbridled terror.

"This is the city that was called Tokyo-3," Lilith commented casually, as if musing about the weather, "You see it as it once was, when the world was whole and not driven into destruction during Third Impact."

"A third impact!" I cried, "What were the first two like?! And what with?"

I could hear the smirk and dripping sarcasm on Lilith's voice, "The first one is not important, it happened on this planet- as well as yours- many millennia ago."

"What do you mean?" I demanded.

She went on, heedless of my intrusion, "Only the last two are important… One you can stop the other you cannot. Let me show you the Second Impact."

Glaciers and snowdrifts scraped clean the city below us to create a valley of frozen splendor; icebergs rose out of the ocean and bobbed like the cubes in a rich man's glass.

I don't know how I knew, but I knew that Antarctica lay below me and the girl, Lilith, that carried me with her as she flew. There was one settlement of red huts that could only be comprised of scientists or explorers. There was a long strip of cleared ice that I knew had to be a landing strip for one of those flyers that those two American brothers (Wright, I presume) flew seven years ago. There also was a circle painted on top of one particularly level and sturdy patch of ice in green reflective paint- it had the English letter **H** in the center of it in reflective white. Even though the small huts were well beyond our technological grasp to make, they were partially demolished and looked like that they had been through an awfully hard battle complete with artillery rounds.

We landed on a ceiling beam of the largest building. We were looking down at various gadgets and technological marvels that seemed to be just like magic to me. A hot wind started to blow from behind us, melting the frost and making the metal of the building pop. Steam started to rise from the ice as the atmosphere's temperature started to shift.

A door-sized panel slid open with a pneumatic hiss, it revealed a bloody man in winter clothing (I do not need to say "of a type that I had never seen before" anymore, I am quite certain that I have seen the distant future- and thus everything is beyond my understanding) he was carrying what I had first thought were a bundle of rags, then I realized that it was a girl with jet-black hair that looked purple in the right light. Both were of mongoloid descent and I realized that he must be the father, for only a father would treat a girl with the gentility that he was showing to her.

A curved plate on top of a white cylinder that had rounded ends lifted and opened revealing a seat. The man laid his daughter in the seat and closed the hatch, and then he collapsed into death on top of the canister- spilling his life's blood onto it.

"I did not bring you here to see them," Lilith said, interrupting my observations, "I brought you to see the me of then and Adam. Now, come and see."

I turned and saw a man-dug hollow in the ice, in the center was a humanoid that was as large as the crucified creatures that I had seen earlier. This one was face down and only half-chiseled out of its icy confine.

A circle of ice started to glow red some ways away from the hollow, and it melted to reveal a similar sized being of white light! A black hole resided in the center of the body, and I had first thought that to be the creature's eye! But a closer inspection revealed that there were two eyes at where the "head" would have been- and they glowed like the coals of hell.

I think that it was Satan, called "ol' Adam splitfoot" by speakers of English. Lucifer was the angel of light once.

A horseless carriage, that seemed to have been manufactured only for the purpose of war, rolled forward to the glowing devil; in a long, forward-facing barrel a red, double-pronged instrument was loaded into it.

It was a self-propelled cannon, loaded with charge.

The charge fired in a vehement explosion of smoke, and the crimson shot hit "ol' Adam splitfoot" right in the black circle in the center.

The giant reeled backwards, as if taken with a sudden heart attack, and then regarded the lance sticking out of him with only a minor interest. It raised a hand to the cannon, and it exploded when a series of orange hexagons fashioned themselves in front of it.

The giant of light then walked to the being (who I think is Lilith) still encased in the ice. It reached out its hand to the caged being and touched it.

They detonated into a fiery and fearsome blast, the likes of which should not be created at any time. I screamed in fright and shielded my face with my arms in a futile attempt to protect myself. But I realized that there was no pain nor wind nor debris.

"That was the start of the decimation of this world," the smaller Lilith stated with a tinge of something, regret maybe? "The Katsuragi expedition contacted both Adam and me, and they all died for their sins, except for the blameless one."

"The girl," I stated, she did not appear to have been self-reliant yet.

"Yes," Lilith agreed, "and your world is the next one that this carnage will happen to."

* * *

**END OF PAGE 1: TRANSLATED BY RON BARKER**


	2. Chapter 2

As is now stated in the summery, this is NOT an S.I., but a "letter" from some HISTORICAL person (an H.I. if you will) - I won't reveal exactly who it is as that would spoil the surprise at the end of this, besides, if you remember your history classes you should have already made a guess as to who it is.

Now for the second page of the letter:

(Translated from German)

"How?" I feverishly begged of Lilith, I fell to my knees and grabbed the front of her dress in my flagrant hysteria, "How do I stop this Second Impact on my world?"

"You cannot," she candidly pronounced, then she glowered, "Remove your hands."

I removed them, fearing that Lilith might call her replicas and end my life right then. She didn't shift position or posture or speak for several moments afterward. Unable to bear the silence that had been cast between us; I lowered my gaze, the incredible city had once more materialized underneath us- with its thousands of technical marvels and baubles.

_Idiot,_ I thought to myself,_ I should have thought of this earlier!_ "Lilith?" I asked.

"What is it?" she replied crossly, like a mother tired of her child's immature petulance.

"When…" I began, I was going to finish …did this happen? However, I knew that I would get some enigmatic retort, so I rephrased my inquiry to become, "What year did the Second Impact happen?"

She nearly imperceptibly smirked at the query, as if it amused her in some way- perhaps it did. "In this world, the year 2000."

I started, I knew that the cataclysm had to have been more pressing than ninety years for me to have been drawn here, "When will it happen in my world?"

Lilith's smile broadened and she didn't answer my question, "Come and see what I have to show you." PB

The world went dark, and I feared that Lilith had taken me to a time where God had not yet created the earth.

"This room was where mankind began again after Second Impact… and was later destroyed by their own kind in the Third," Lilith declared with a hint of beaming in her voice.

The room lit up so fiercely and so abruptly that I was blinded and had to shield my eyes with my hands. I heard the excited murmurs of people around me.

We were in the front row of a crowd of ethnically diverse people; some had large black boxes on their shoulders, others had long stick-like devices that ended in wooly tubes, still others (and I guessed that these were the more important people in the crowd) were dressed in formal attire and held small metal scepters that ended in wire-mesh balls to their lips. The entire crowd was watching a panel of diplomatic looking fellows sign a document on a brilliantly carved mahogany table.

"Look!" Lilith hissed into my ear, her hand slipped onto my shoulder and squeezed, her nails biting into my skin "Ignore the treaty signing! Over there! See the two men in the corner!"

I looked over to the corner, the crowd seemed to acknowledge my gaze and step aside to reveal what I was meant to see. Two men, one a proud Muscovite, the other man could have been anything- he was plain in manner and in structure and they were secretly whispering to one another.

"The one on the right is the important one, his name is Keel Lorenz," Lilith revealed to me.

"He's German?"

"Yes," she replied to my inquest, "he's a German Jew."

I _ahhed_ at this, the beginnings of The Plan forming in my mind. "What of the Russian?" I asked.

"Keel is recruiting him in a new organization that will be called SEELE. They will mastermind the Third Impact as it is prophesied by a portion of an ancient literature called Dead Sea Scrolls. They will succeed in this world just as Keel has already succeeded in masterminding the Second."

"He orchestrated that calamity?!" I implored, shocked, "What kind of deviousness executes atrocities like that?"

"The kind of deviousness that thinks that it is bringing mankind closer to God," Lilith regretfully stated.

"Blasphemer. The worst kind," I connected in my mind.

"Yes," agreed Lilith, "Now let us observe the child…"PB

Sunlight blasted into my eyes, and the buzzing drones of cicadas filled my ears. My vision adjusted to the sudden influx of light and I saw that I was actually _in_ the city of the future. "Tokyo-3?" I asked in conformation. Lilith nodded.

We were standing in the middle of a deserted, paved roadway amongst the towers. Standing around a dozen meters away from us was a boy with his back turned. He held what I presumed to be a telephone receiver up to his ear and mouth. Signs written in either Chinese or Japanese were clustered around him. Considering the name of the city however, I think that they were Japanese.

He put the hand-device back into its cradle and muttered something to himself. Then he turned around and his eyes widened slightly in surprise; I think he _saw_ us, or at least, Lilith.

A rumble like thunder pealed out from across the landscape, startling a flock of birds nestled on telegraph wires. The boy glanced at the flying flock and then back at us. His eyes widened in surprise again, but the motions of his eyeballs told me that he could not see us anymore.

"Lilith," I asked, "are we really here, and are we invisible?"

"Yes, we are here, while you are also in your own world." she answered, "Invisibility, on the other hand, is an impossibility. But becoming _dim_ is quite possible. I was sloppy though and was seen by him since I am fully in this world. People can only just sense you however. Now, look behind you, for your father's sake!"

I turned and saw a colossal being of green step out from behind a hill, it was preceded by several aeroplanes.

"That is the reason why SEELE needs to exist," Lilith said to me, "to combat the beings known as Angels. SEELE needs to destroy them or else THEY will cause the Third Impact."

Confused, I asked, "Why should SEELE care if this angel causes Third Impact? Aren't they trying to cause it?"

"Yes," Lilith agreed, "but SEELE wants to do it on their own terms."

The area became dark again, and then lit up once more with a pure pale blue light that came out of white, humming, glass tubes. A purple, man-like construct that was as large as the being of green and the crucified figures lay dormant and locked away, submerged in a pink liquid.

"Evangelion Unit One… Mankind's savior and ultimate traitor. Piloted by the boy you just saw, he is Shinji Ikari. He is the bravest Lilum that you will ever meet." She spoke as if she were God commenting about his faithful servant Job to Satan. "He might not look like it now," Lilith said, "but he will replace God for a day, but even then he shall be little more than a puppet."

I could say nothing, my mouth just gaped open like an idiot's.

"On that day," Lilith continued, "all is destroyed… by him."

"So am I to stop him?" I asked, not knowing what was wanted of me.

Lilith quickly and gracefully swung around and her arm perfectly arced her open palm onto my cheeck. "NO!" She roared, "He is innocent and not to be harmed!"

I rubbed my face where she had slapped me, "I didn't mean to kill or harm him; I just meant to kidnap him until he can no longer harm anyone. And what did you mean by innocent? By your own words he is supposed to slaughter everyone on the planet!"

"The world rejected him," Lilith replied coldly, "so he will reject the world."

"Does that make him any less guilty?" I countered.

"It does when he is just as much a puppet as the researchers in the Second Impact," she volleyed back at me. The ball was in my court and I didn't have a response. (Game. Set. Match.)

"But a man-made Third Impact, what you are to prevent, can only happen at **this moment!**"

The vicinity faded away into a miry darkness once more at the sound of her voice. Then, just as suddenly, I could see the Evangelion Unit One in a large room and covered and trapped with a sort of reddish crystalline substance. The boy sat, dejected and morose, on a metal platform at the shoulder height of the humanoid war machine. The boy Shinji said something in his bird-like tongue. The purple beast shivered and broke out of its crystal prison, its hand reaching out to the child. The arm bridged the gap between the pilot and his machine.

He climbed over and got inside a long control plug.

"That was when the Third Impact became a certainty," said Lilith, "When he got in the Eva when those… _things _were out there."

Befuddled, I asked, "The Angels?"

Lilith shook her head, "No. The Angels were horrible but these things are worse… They are abominations, perversions, monsters…"

Those dreadful chimes and scents of onions and burnt metal started to blossom around me.

"Charry kammen!" cursed Lilith, "Alas! Sir! Remember this!" She started to yell as her voice began to fade away under the strengthening chimes. "Only after the angels is the time right for the third destruction!"

And like that, she was gone- that world was gone. I was back in my apartment. The orange goo was still flooding the area and I heard several fists pounding at my door. Then the sound of some sort of battering ram started to splinter that door. I was angry about that since I had just repainted it several weeks ago.

But I did the only thing I could think to do. I fell into the goo with something hard underneath my head- to act like I had been knocked unconscious. I acted like I couldn't respond to anything for several hours, and then said that I couldn't remember anything to the authorities that contacted me. They all said that that was fine, that they already had most of the story of the "freak accident"… as they were calling it.

Their story was simple: at about nine o'clock that morning a liquid ball of unknown composition that had been floating around the upper atmosphere for God knew how long had suddenly dropped down through my roof (as I live on the top floor) and hit me in the head, knocking me unconscious instantly. It then spread across the room and started leaking into the rooms around mine.

I could have pointed out the flaws in this, but the story made them happy- so it made me happy as well.

I returned home later that afternoon, there was a hole in the ceiling.

Intrigued I examined the hole and my search yielded an envelope with a sentence and two symbols. The letter read: _After the angels is when you interfere._ The symbols were just as strange as well; one was of an inverted triangle face with seven eyes- three on the left, four on the right, the second was one red eye made out of a single line that came swooping down, looped, and went back up again only to be caught in a spiral.

I don't care what Lilith thinks, I'm going to do my best to try and keep the Second Impact from even happening. While I was "unconscious" The Plan became full formed in my mind: I had to kill all the Jews… because Keel is or was or will be a Jew as well. I cannot tackle this errand alone, so I have to take all the power in a well-developed nation. I will have to turn that entire nation against the race (which should not be too difficult- most people here hate them already). And then I will stop that Shinji.

May God bless your soul:

Adolf Hitler


End file.
